A Park for FDR, Finally

Dignitaries on Wednesday marked the completion of the long-awaited Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, a memorial that was four decades in the making.

Updated Oct. 17, 2012 4:13 p.m. ET

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John Bean of Patrick Alan Contracting works to move a 1,000-lb. bust of Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the new Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island in August. The creation of the park was first announced in 1973, but the city's money woes led to it being shelved.
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The current architecture team, some of whom have worked on the project for many years, take a tour of the memorial recently. Covered up is the back of the large stone with FDR's portrait and a scripture with lines from one of his famous speeches. The memorial on Roosevelt Island is based on a design that was designed by Louis Kahn in 1971.
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Contractors moved and installed a 1,000-lb. bust of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The bust is a re-casting and enlargement of a 1933 sculpture by Jo Davidson.
Kevin Hagen for The Wall Street Journal…

The project was resurrected in 2005 by William vanden Heuvel after a documentary renewed interest in Kahn, who collapsed and died in Pennsylvania Station in 1974. About $53 million was raised in the next seven years, much of it from private donors.
Mark Abramson for The Wall Street Journal…

Lois Dubin, one of the original landscape architects working on the project, points to the memorial from the roof of United Nations Plaza on East 49th Street.
Mark Abramson for The Wall Street Journal…

The current architecture team, some of whom have worked on the project for many years, take a tour of the memorial, which became embroiled in a legal dispute between two donors who wanted their names placed prominently on the site.
Mark Abramson for The Wall Street Journal…

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton makes his way to the opening ceremony. 'It is altogether fitting that this day was delayed until a time when we knew that we could never take the Four Freedoms for granted — in a time when we too would have to decide whether to build a country that benefits the many and not just the few,' Clinton said at the event.
REUTERS…

The bust is displayed during the dedication ceremony. A separate sculpture highlighting Roosevelt's disability is planned.
AP…